LAHORE / RAWALPINDI — Former Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja has cancelled events to promote his new book, local media reported on Wednesday, after an awkward television interview in which he refused to confirm whether Australia’s bowlers were involved in the 2018 ball-tampering plot in South Africa. Batsmen Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sanctioned over the ‘Sandpapergate’ scandal, but Khawaja claimed in his autobiography ‘ Sabr ’ that knowledge of the plan to manipulate the ball was not confined to those three players and that the whole team should be held responsible.
Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Todd Greenberg has ruled out another investigation into the scandal, but pressure was growing on Wednesday for the governing body to reopen the case. Appearing on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ’s ‘7:30’ programme on Tuesday, Khawaja was asked whether captain Pat Cummins and his fellow bowlers had prior knowledge that sandpaper was being used to change the condition of the ball. “You’ve got to remember Pat Cummins is a good friend of mine, Mitchell Starc, a lot of these guys, guys on the team, other players on the team,” he replied.
“Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, all very good friends of mine. “I’m not here to go on a witch hunt, all I’ve ever wanted is for us to take accountability as a team and I don’t think that’s a lot to say.” Fast bowler Starc denied prior knowledge